PG, 82m, 2000

With the Voice Talents of D. B. Sweeney (Aladar), Alfre Woodard (Plio), Ossie Davis (Yar), Max Casella (Zini), Evan Sabara (Young Zini), Hayden Panettiere (Suri), Samuel E. Wright (Kron), Julianna Margulies (Neera) Joan Plowright (Baylene), Della Reese (Eema) and Peter Siragusa (Bruton). Directed by Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton. Produced by Pam Marsden. Screenplay by John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs. Music by James Newton Howard.

            Like many kids, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. I had numerous dinosaur toys and books. Naturally when this film came out I was ecstatic. I loved “The Rite of Spring” segment from Fantasia and I adored The Land Before Time, so I was excited to see another dinosaur movie (my parents didn’t let me watch the Jurassic Park films). Early trailers of the film showed the first few minutes of the film and they looked astounding to me. As a kid, I liked this movie. As an adult, I find it rather dull.

            The opening to this film is one of the best openings in a Disney film. The film opens with a curious Parasaurolophus looking through various Dinosaur’s nests. Unfortunately, its curiosity attracts the attention of a Carnotaurus who chases the terrified Parasaurolophus. The Carnotaurus causes havoc to reign as it looks for food. The approaching beasts causes a mother Iguanodon to abandon her nest. While she’s away an Oviraptor snatches the only surviving egg and is about to make a meal of the egg when another Oviraptor tries to snatch the egg away. A struggle ensues and the egg falls into a river. The egg then travels until it’s picked up by a Pteranodon. The Pteranodon accidentally drops the egg on Lemur Island where a tribe of lemurs live. A young female lemur named Plio (Alfre Woodard) cautiously investigates the fallen object, despite the urging of her father Yar (Ossie Davis), to leave it alone. The object is revealed to be an egg, that contains a baby Iguanodon, who miraculously suffered no injury from his long journey or the long fall. The lemurs decide to raise the baby dinosaur, whom they name Aladar. Aladar grows up and is enjoying his life amongst the lemurs. However, one day a massive meteor interrupts the lemurs’ mating ritual and destroys the lemurs’ home. Now only Aladar, Yar, Plio, Suri (Hayden Panettiere) and Zini (Max Casella) are left. They eventually come across a huge herd of diverse dinosaurs led by the tyrannical Kron (Samuel E. Wright). The herd is on their way to the Nesting Grounds, a place believed to be untouched by the meteor’s destruction. On top of having no access to water of food, the herd also has to watch out for predators, like the dreaded Carnotaurus.

            As I stated earlier the opening to this movie is amazing. However, this actually serves as a detriment to the rest of the film. The opening starts off with such promise with sweeping shots of gorgeous landscapes and interesting looking dinosaurs. Then we get a cool battle over the egg, which results in the egg tumbling down before landing with a thud. Then the lemurs talk, and things go quickly downhill. This film suffers from the same problem as James Cameron’s Avatar. For its time the visuals look amazing, but the story and characters are cliched and boring. Aladar is your basic wise cracking nice guy. Neera is your basic love interest. Kron is your basic unbending no compromise leader. Bruton is your basic flawed grumpy character that learns the power of friendship. Suri is your basic doe-eyed kid, Plio is your basic mom character and Yar is your basic grumpy grandpa character. One thing that really bothers me about this movie is the character Url. Url is an Ankylosaurus that acts like a pet. Why? In The Land Before Time, Spike was portrayed as mentally slower than the other characters, but the film wasn’t insulting to him. In fact, if anything, The Land Before Time has a good message of treating those different than you like everybody else. Url didn’t even have a reason for being in the film. If you took him out the film would lose nothing. In The Land Before Time, Spike helps out, he’s not a one note character that contributes nothing to the plot. I don’t think it was the filmmakers’ intent to portray a mentally handicapped dinosaur in a negative light, but I don’t get why Url is treated as a pet. The carnivorous characters, I understand making them mute and brutish. It’s lazy filmmaking, but it’s quite common to make the carnivorous characters mute when your characters are herbivores. Speaking of the carnivorous characters, I loved how they had a different carnivorous dinosaur be the villain in this movie. So many films like The Land Before Time, Jurassic Park and “The Rite Of Spring” segment from Fantasia, use the Tyrannosaurus Rex, as the big bad (even if the dinosaur wouldn’t have been in that time period or in that area). In Dinosaur, the big bad is a Carnotaurus. This makes the film feel more unique with a villain that looks visually interesting and one that has received few appearances in film.

            I like the gritty realism of this film. They don’t hold back when it comes to showing what would happen if a predator catches a dinosaur. They also showed several dinosaurs falling over and dying from lack of food and water. This is very similar to what Disney did earlier in “The Rite of Spring”segment in Fantasia. When Aladar and his friends find water, the herd nearly tramples one another in order to quench their thirst. The meteor scene is a very poignant scene. The imagery is reminiscent of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the meteor destroys Lemur Island, Aladar and his family take a moment to mourn the loss of their home and loved ones. However, I do feel the scene would have been more powerful, had a named character died in the destruction.

            While visually stunning (for its time), the film is hindered by generic characters and av bland story. Although the film does have little moments where it shines through, they can’t save the bloated mess.